A seemingly endless story of league players behaving badly

George Burgess charged with smashing a car window in Cairns at 2.45am? Let's start with the laughs because, let's face it, the tears will come. The tweets about how the Rabbitohs are preparing to argue the car has a history of being involved in this sort of thing. How the car was believed to be wearing a fake beard and performing a racially insensitive impersonation of Hashim Amla. How Big George was merely removing the rear window so he and his three bukly brothers could fit in.

Now – with a heavy heart – we look the past week in the eye. We shake our heads and ponder Episode 954 of League Behaving Badly.

The case of Big George v Family Sedan might cause only a slight tremor from the NRL's Attrocityometre. James Tamou's blood alcohol reading had the needle twitching more. The allegations of indecent assault against now former Origin star Blake Ferguson are on a different scale. But, together, these cases are part of a seemingly endless story. One with a common theme. NRL players consistently and recklessly putting themselves in a place, and in a condition, where bad things happen.

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League, we are told, is not a game for choir boys. But should it be a game with such subterraneal behavioural standards that, at the present rate, Origin II will be between Long Bay and Boggo Rd? We're reminded, by those who could turn an axe murder into a Wiggles song, the NRL is a game of second chances. Too often, though, it is a game of chances spurned. Unless you have a good explanation why Josh Dugan would be drinking in a nightclub with Ferguson.

Actually, I can. Dugan's punishment for his rooftop bender was a transfer to St George Illawarra where his talent trumped his recklessness. Where he was transformed from Pineapple Cruiser-skolling miscreant to hero. Which – as Todd Carney may have told him – is a metamorphosis that takes longer.

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The apologists will claim Dugan did no wrong. But by merely putting himself in the wrong place at the wrong time he revealed his rehabilitation was incomplete. That we again confused talent with remorse. That St Kilda forward Stephen Milne was yesterday charged with rape is a reminder the NRL is not the only code with problems. But such comparisons provides cold comfort. Who want to be part of a race to the bottom of the barrel?

Under new chief executive David Smith, the NRL is cracking down. The strong penalties handed Tamou at Smith's insistence and Ferguson's immediate removal from the NSW squad were further indications of a zero-tolerance approach.

But Smith's integrity unit should be a body of last resort. The NRL will have egg smeared on its face until every club acts as strongly and decisively as the peak body.

It is the clubs where the players spend their time; where cultures are created and standards set; where the early warning signs are apparent and a critical decision is made – inflict punishment at the risk of affecting team performance, or cross your fingers, hope the problem child doesn't get into too much trouble and you get the points on Sunday. Still, seemingly, too many clubs take the self-serving option. To bring them into line, the NRL has a powerful weapon – the abandonment of the fixed grant in favour of needs based funding. Something that can be tied, partly, to its behavioural record. Do you want that misbehaving prop forward or the money for the new high performance centre? You decide.

Some clubs are changing their cultures. They recognise that the NRL's shoddy behavioural record not only retards the game's growth, but will inevitably inhibit their performance.

Significant power is with the players. Privately, the many wiser heads tell you they are sick of being tarred with the NRL's bad boy brush. Yet, in public, they are too quick to shoot the media messengers and too reluctant to condemn the fools.

The apologists will claim Dugan did no wrong. But by merely putting himself in the wrong place at the wrong time he revealed his rehabilitation was incomplete. That we again confused talent with remorse and contrition

It is time for the game's real leaders to stand up. To exert peer pressure. To name and shame. After all, they have nothing to lose but the mud that sticks to the entire game.

rhinds@smh.com.au

@rdhinds

Correction: The original version of this story referred to allegations of sexual assault against Blake Ferguson. This should have read indecent assault.